I brought my hand up, resting it against his chest, feeling the steady rhythm of his heartbeat beneath my palm.
“I love you,” I said again. Not because he hadn’t heard me, but because now I understood what it meant to say it.
His face glowed. “Good.”
Despite my fluttering stomach and my thumping heart, I smiled.
“That’s it? That’s your response?”
He grinned. “No, that’s my confirmation.”
For a second, neither of us moved, and I knew what was coming.
Stefan pulled me into him, and then his mouth was on mine—hard, immediate, the kiss breaking through every inch of space we’d kept between us until now. There was no hesitation, no awareness of where we were, no pause to consider who might be watching.
I met his kiss with equal fervour, my hands gripping his coat, dragging him closer,needinghim closer, the solid heat of him grounding me in a way nothing else had since I’d left. His kiss was like his words, direct, uncompromising, and certain, but there was something else I hadn’t felt from him before.
Release.
Stefan
The weeks of silence, of holding back, choosing not to act, letting Kieran walk away… All of it broke in that moment.
I held him tightly, my breath unsteady against his lips, and deepened the kiss that was demanding and giving in equal measure. I was making up for every second I hadn’t taken when I could have.
He wasn’t holding back either. The way he leaned into the kiss, sliding his hand to my jaw, I felt the slight loss of control in him—and recognised it in myself.
This is where we’ve been heading all along.
I was aware of movement around us, people passing, voices, life continuing.
None of it mattered.
When we finally broke apart, I pressed my forehead to his, my hand still at his neck, not letting go.
Not this time.
And now I had to tell him that.
“I’m not letting you walk away again,” I said quietly.
A breath shuddered out of him. “Good. Neither am I.”
Kieran
By the time we made it out of the terminal, the cold hit properly, sharp enough to bring everything back into focus. My hand remained firmly in his, as though neither of us was willing to test what would happen if we let go.
Not yet.
Maybe not for a while.
“I assume Karl is somewhere nearby, feeling very pleased with himself,” I said.
Stefan chuckled. “Karl is in his apartment, warm and cosy, whereas we are about to freeze our balls off if there isn’t an Uber around.”
“I was going to ask why we weren’t taking the train.”
We stopped on the pavement across the road from the terminal, and Stefan removed his phone from his pocket. “I want you in my apartment, and this is the fastest route to that outcome.”